CHAPTER 3

SAYING GOODBYE

The next day at the Chaotix Charmy walked into the door still upset about his sister's death. All he could think about was her. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Rouge pulling on Shadow's ear forcing him to walk up to the bee.

Rouge had a firm grip on his ear, "Charmy, Shadow has something to say."

"You bitch too much, bat", he said in annoyance.

Rouge pulled harder on his ear.

"All right! Charmy, I'm sorry."

"What else?"

"I'm sorry I said those things to you...about Michelle."

Charmy had his eyes focusing on the floor, "It's okay. I forgive you."

"What else?" Rouge said about to tug on his ear again.

Shadow looked back at her with an angry look, "I'm not saying it."

Rouge pulled on his ear, "Say it!"

Shadow couldn't take the pain anymore, "I'm sorry for being an ass! Happy now?"

Rouge let go of his ear and walked away.

Shadow touched his burning ear, "That bitch. She always has to nag about the most stupidest shit." He noticed Charmy walking into the garage. Somehow he thought that saying sorry didn't help much. He followed him.

Charmy did nothing but sit on the cold floor crying.

Shadow walked over to him slowly and sat beside him, "Are you still mad with me?"

Charmy shook his head.

"You're still upset about Michelle's death."

Charmy nodded.

"You know Charmy, you're not the only person here that lost someone dear."

Charmy looked up at him, "Who?"

"Tonya's mother was killed by a Street Punk when she was young. She still misses her today you know."

"But I never saw her sad. She's always happy."

"That's because she knows her mother will always be with her."

Charmy was quiet for a second, "Anyone else?"

"Me."

"Your father?"

Shadow nodded, "You know the story. He was killed by Lance, but that's not the worse part."

"What was the worse part?"

"I had to watch that bastard kill him in front of my very eyes. I felt extremely useless, I didn't do anything to stop his death. All I did was sit there, watching Lance stab him to death. From that day I never forgave myself."

Charmy felt Shadow's pain.

Shadow's eyes were filled with water, but he tried to hold them in. He faced Charmy, "Do you understand, Charmy? You're not alone. It happens to everyone."

'He's right. It does happen to everyone. If Shadow and Tonya can put their past behind them then so can I.'

Then Espio came in the room, "Hao's at it again."

Later that night, they were all standing on the hilltop that lead to the city. Hao always went that way to enter the city.

Vector faced Tonya, "Are you sure Hao will come this way?"

"Positive, my computer never lied to me before", Tonya hoped not anyway.

"Yeah, but he's been using the same route over and over. Do you think he ought to try a different direction?" Rouge thought.

"Come on, Rouge. He's a bad guy. They don't use their heads like they use to", Espio said.

Charmy looked at the two daggers in his hands. He was thinking about what Michelle had said to him, 'Charmy, promise me.' He looked away from the weapons, "I promised..." he said quietly.

Vector laid his hand on his shoulder, "Don't space out on us, Charms. Hao will be here any minute."

"Or now with a lot of friends with him", Espio pointed in front of him.

A blue wolf appeared in front of them with a large army of robots behind him. He wasn't surprised that the Chaotix got there before he did. "So you guys showed up?"

Rouge scratched the back of her head "Maybe he did lose his brain."

Hao smiled, "I guess we all know what happens next." He pointed at the group, "Attack!"

The robots charged at them with guns emerging from their wrists shooting at them.

They all scattered from the blasts the robots made.

Espio took out a shuriken star and threw it at one of the robots.

With the robots not knowing it was a bomb. Half of them exploded along with the rest. Espio faced Shadow, "I took out some of them. Finish them off, Shadow."

Shadow nodded and stood in front of the charging robots. He glowed a red color all over his body, "Chaos Blast!" A red blast destroyed all of the robots in a matter of seconds.

Millions of metal pieces were all over the ground.

Shadow faced Hao while he cracked his knuckles, "Now to deal with you." As he was walking closer, Hao had Tonya's wrist in his hand.

He took out a gun and pointed it to her head, "Stay where you are or she dies."

They all had no choice.

Hao told them his next order, "Drop your weapons. All of them."

Everyone dropped their weapons to the ground like he said.

"We did it now release Tonya", Vector said.

Hao didn't move from the gun from her head, "Shut up and I won't harm her."

"Do something", Tonya whispered in a scared voice.

"I said shut up!"

Charmy looked into Tonya's eyes. He could tell that she was scared. He didn't want to see her that way. His eyes were filled with rage. When Hao was focusing on Tonya, Charmy came at him with a kick in the face.

Hao fell to the ground dropping the gun from his hands and letting Tonya go.

Tonya ran to Espio and hugged him, "God I was scared. I thought he was going to shoot me."

Espio hugged her back, "You're safe now."

Shadow stood beside Charmy, "I'll take it from here."

"No."

Shadow was surprised what Charmy had said, "Huh?"

"I'll deal with him", he walked up to Hao slowly with anger still in his eyes. He clenched his fist, "How dare you threaten Tonya. She was...so scared. You'll pay...you'll pay!" He used his wings and flew over to Hao and hit him in the face with force.

Hao was bleeding from his nose and mouth. Once he couldn't take it anymore he fell to the ground unconscious.

Vector ran over to Hao and cuffed him by his wrists.

"That was for you, Michelle", Charmy said softly with a slight smile.

"Isn't it great, Charmy?" A deep voice said behind him.

Charmy spun around and looked at Shadow.

Shadow tried to put on a friendly face, "You're finally smiling."

Charmy's slight smile got wider, "I guess so."

Later that next day during the afternoon, Charmy decided to visit Michelle's grave with Vector and his wife, Margaret.

Vector and Margaret were embracing on each other looking at Charmy with sympathy.

Charmy placed the bracelet that he made Michelle in front of her tombstone. "I'll always love yea, sis."

Vector broke away from his wife and put his hand on Charmy's shoulder.

Charmy looked at him with some sorrow in his eyes.

"Are you going to be okay?"

Charmy nodded with a huge smile and laughed, "Yeah! Better than ever! Let's go I'm staring!"

"Okay, okay. We're going."

Charmy walked behind Vector and Margaret. He stopped and took another look back at Michelle's grave. For once his face was dead serious, "I'll keep my promise to you no matter what."